Printing often use print cartridges, sometimes referred to as “pens” which may shoot drops of printing fluid referred to generally herein as printing fluid, onto print media, such as paper. Each print cartridge may have a print head (print head die) with very small nozzles through which the ink drops are shot using various technologies, such as thermal or piezo-electric inkjet technology. Between incremental advancing steps of the media through a printzone, the printhead may be propelled back and forth across the media while selectively firing drops of ink on the media to form a desired image. The printhead nozzles may be arranged in linear arrays, oriented perpendicular to a scanning axis of the printheads.
To maintain printhead health, the printheads may be serviced in a service station area of the printing mechanism wherein the servicing routine may include purging ink blockages from the nozzles into a spittoon during an operation known as “spitting.” However, for instance, when considering Page Wide Array (PWA) printers it not possible to move the printheads to a service station and so the service station has to move to the printheads.